i first built my dual strat jackplate a long time ago and know i have shown it here, i passed what i did to brian at jack of roses and he sold them for a while. wonder if that is where scott got his. also, brad also did this an even longer time ago, and instead of a metal material, just used pickguard material to fabricate it.

just pointing out the fact that scott walker is not the first to use this. take a look at mattson's strat or jackofroses old page or the archive here. this has been an alternative for quite a while.

just a little perplexed you haven't seen these before.

peace,
waldo

Disclaimer: I get paid to make, modify or build things for those that seek what i may be able to provide.

Nice. My Fender Showmaster has no pickguard, only 2 knobs (master tone and vol) and bottom jacks like a les paul. It was easy to drill a 7/8" hole next to the first and the a regular jackplate. I wish my "super strat" loaded from the front, this looks nicer, plus the cords hang easier w/ right angles. Always wantin' what I don't have.

I hunted feverishly for a solution. I talked to my local machine shop & an electroplater who does custom car & motorcycle parts. I settled on have about 20 aluminum blanks made at the machine shop ($100), and then polishing them in my shop. Aluminum polishes very easy with a drill press & a Ryobi polishing kit from Home Depot. It is also easy to tool for a one-off jack plate. Just buy a small chunk of 1/16 plate, trace a standard strat plate, and cut it with a coping saw with a metal blade. Be careful with what you use to deburr it. A wire wheel will scratch the heck out of aluminum.

Electoplaters get $100 minumum typically. I also looked at home electroplating kits, but didn't really want to get into that project. I have a design scheme for a fancier model, but need time apart from other projects to complete it.

Hope this helps. It would be great to have some of these things commercially available again. Eventually I'll put in a milling machine.

Easy! Just takes time. You can do brass, and of course plastic and wood, with sand paper, but the steel you'll probably want a file, or you'll be sanding for a very long time... I don't like aluminum that much, becuse it clogs up the paper and tools so badly.